Here's a thing: we were playing on IRC and when talking about the game, IRC play was our referent.

In IRC, your narration hangs there, on the page. If you don't explicitly retcon a line of narration that didn't actually happen, the thing looks weird, you'd have "Bob's head is removed." followed by "Bob is slightly scratched."

And they's nestle nest to each other in the chat log like a sucking vaccum in the space-time continuum.

If you play face to face, retconning is so much easier, because who remembers what I said five seconds ago? Instead, there's this kind of muddle of speech and bargaining and what not, and then we eventually figure out what the deal is, it gets narrated sort somewhere in there, and we go on with the new status quo established and no one remembers that previously I said "Bob's head is removed."

Lesson: you need to be more careful about this on IRC than face to face. Lesson learned.

I suspect but do not know that this game a) is going to be really appealing for online play and b) will behave in some subtly strange ways online.

Take "can I switch forms in the middle of an action sequence?" The answer for online play is "I think so, let me know how it works out." The answer for face-to-face play is "nope, but you'll find that you don't mind."

The dice procedure in IAWA is task resolution ~ was that action executed successfully, with what variations of "how that looks, what action happens" along the path to success or failure.

Once a winner decided, the negotiation procedure actually does allow a more 'goal' oriented stakes resolution to then come into play. It is not pre-authored before the action's status is resolved. The bargaining around "this or Injury/Exhaust" is a non-dice system for resolving the accomplishment of goals that are within the range of permitted negotiations.

I admit when I looked at IAWA first, I saw "stakes/conflict" resolution when I saw "you can negotiate for a goal that is narrated, and has the breadth of possibility of narration", then was re-educated that the mechanics and dice procedure in this system is to resolve the task and consequences of task's success or failure. The ability to negotiate narrative and room that gives creativity was part of what I liked, and I admit I think of that as "stakes play" (and was part of what lead to my confusion about who narrates).